Tag Archives: restaurants

Carluccio’s

One thing we are not short of in Liverpool is Italian food, in various forms from the long standing and rather dated Casa Italia to the swanky Il Forno and San Carlo. Various versions of chain restaurants do pizza in a hurry or cheap Italian eats, however the independent Italian clubs or Tribeca top anything their mass market competitors serve up. Thus when another established chain opens up not only does it have to offer equal quality and value it would have to provide something special to attract me away from my favoured independents.

I know, I know, that’s a bit of a poor way to start a review, to paraphrase myself, if it’s not amazing food and cheap prices I’m not going. Does it have any chance? Honestly, probably not. Its more of a principal based decision, I choose to go to independents because usually they are better, but even if they only equal what is on offer in the well known chains, I prefer to spend my money there than in a big national organisation.

So is the Carluccio’s food superb? No. Are Carluccio’s prices ridiculously cheap? No. Our food was fine on my one visit, starters were a decent bruschetta and reasonable liver pate, a main of anchovy penne with tomato sauce and chilli was a little to hot and lacked any noticeable anchovy. A chicken Milanese, was an escallop breadcrumbed and fried, crunchy and crisp outer layer was good but the inside was over cooked and dry. Puddings followed a similar theme, they were OK, a nice fruit tart and good chocolate mouse. This was all fairly cheap as we had the fixed price menu, all this for £12.70 was good but only really matches the many other fixed price menus about town.

So to sum up, in my opinion, if I wanted Italian food in Liverpool, I would head elsewhere, one of several city centre independents would be my choice. That is not to say the food is bad, its not, it was decent and probably equal to some other places in town. If you want to support independents, as I do, then really I wouldn’t bother with Carluccio’s, however, if you don’t and you’re in town it’s not a bad place to go.

The Best Restaurant in Britain?

Yesterday I was in quite a cramped little restaurant, sat at the very high bar on a stool that was too short, I felt like young child at a dinner table. I was situated near the door, thus every time someone came in or left I was hit by a chill breeze, this was far from being a comfy dining experience. It was lucky then that the food was so exceptional, one of the best meals I’ve had in a very long time. The restaurant was Pitt Cue Co and, for me at least, it could be one of the best in the country.

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Lucha Libre

To make an accurate judgement about a meal you need a frame of reference, you need to know what good cooking is, what a good version of the meal your about to eat might be like. All this comes with experience, thus when a waitress at the newly opened Lucha Libre asked “is this the best authentic Mexican food you’ve ever had” I struggled to answer. I’ve eaten quite a bit of poor Tex Mex in my time, but real authentic Mexican, well I’m not actually sure what that is. So is Lucha Libre truly authentic? I don’t know, but at least it’s trying something that isn’t on offer elsewhere in Liverpool.

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Frankie & Benny’s Edge Lane

The advantage of being a food blogger is occasionally, very occasionally in my case, a restaurant will offer you some form of free meal. I was rather surprised when a few weeks ago Frankie & Benny’s contacted me offering a £50 restaurant voucher in return for a written review, this very review in fact. Now, F&B’s is not the kind of place I would ever choose to eat, in fact I’ve never eaten at a F&B’s before, in any of their 180 nationwide franchises. I wrote back to F&B’s, stating quite clearly that I didn’t write favoured reviews, unlike our local papers; despite the free cost it would be an honest review of the food on offer. They were very happy with this, certain that their new menu would stand up to close inspection. A few days later the voucher arrived in the post and myself and a friend made our way to the rather derelict Edge Lane.

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Introducing Scousetro Club

I’m very happy to announce Liverpool’s new dining club, Scousetro Club is an inovative dining expereicne coming to Liverpool. It is a monthly meal hosted by a vibrant local restaurant, offering adventorous food that you can’t normally find on its menu. It is a chance for local food lovers to get together at a great Liverpool restaurant and expereicne great food.

For more information check out the Scousetro Club site here. 

Or Follow Scousetro Club on twitter @scousetroclub

60 Hope Street

I’ve mentioned 60 before, see my Michelin star article, and indeed had high hopes for it. Apparently a new head chef has taken charge, and this combined with continuing good reviews led me to believe it was going to get better and better.

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A recent meal, however, made me think differently. The skill of the cooking being undertaken is still good, we had some very nice fresh pasta, perfectly cooked scallops and soft and tender duck during our meal. The problem lies in the complexity of the dishes, it can be, as aptly demonstrated by this meal, the hardest thing to put just a few things on a plate. Most of the dishes we had were overcrowded with too many elements, for instance this scallop dish with accompaniments of anchovies, capers, gherkins, pearl barley, parsley sauce. This was a theam for the meal, over complex dishes with too many elements that don’t sit well together.

The quality of the cooking is good, however the production of coherent dishes is not.

Sid